A Lich's Love (Death Knight Series Book 5)

by Michael Chatfield

  Fysher heard the rumbling in the distance as the mortar’s cannonballs landed and exploded. A blue and white light could be seen among the blizzard. He looked to the diviner’s mirror.

  The cannonballs landed among the chaotic beasts, hitting the ground. The enchantment activated, sending blades of wind and shrapnel through the chaotic beasts.

  Dozens died from each impact. They were spaced out to weaken the effect of firepower and long-range AoE spells.

  The casualties weren’t that impressive, but the power of the shells left Fysher feeling a different kind of shiver running down his back. He was intimidated.

  Assaulting Shivernsin would’ve been the end of anyone who dared to attack.

  The mortars took longer to reload due to their mass, but their range was impressive. They got in two more volleys before the cannons started to fire. They were shooting blind; explosions could be seen in the distance as gun crews worked mechanically: firing, cleaning, reloading, setting, and repeating the process again and again.

  Each of the battery commanders had a seer and their mirror with them, allowing them to call out corrections, even in the blizzard.

  Fysher looked at the Drafeng chaotic beasts that were running forward. They looked like ants crossing the white valley. Cannon and mortar fire landed among them; explosions of blue, white, and shining metal tore through ground and left deep craters.

  It went on for five more minutes before the Drafeng chose to retreat.

  The gunners continued to fire. The battery commanders used the guns at their command to saturate areas where there were more chaotic beasts.

  After another ten or so minutes, it was all over.

  “Clean and ready the guns for the next group,” Logan said.

  “How many probing attacks do you think that they’ll make?” Fysher asked.

  “As many as it takes. Now that they have the mana for it and the conversion towers, manpower is not an issue to them. They only care for the Drafeng—chaotic beasts aren’t anything special in their eyes, unless they evolve,” Anthony said.

  “We’ve got plenty of powder and steel to greet them with,” Logan said.

  “Once we have the reinforcements led by Damien, then we can use the mana restricting formation, cut them off from their ability to birth new troops. Then the armies can advance forward, slowly grinding the Drafeng down.”

  ***

  “Looks like we’re going north!” Su said, talking to the gathered beast kin traders who had turned into part of the supply train for the beast kin army. When Anthony and the Guardians stopped the war between the races, he had run supplies for the Combined Armies, then the Island Alliance Army, the United Army, beast kin, human, and Combined Armies all in the last few weeks.

  “North? Why?” Gus asked, his trunk moving in curiosity.

  “Second Eastern Combined Army needs winter gear and supplies. We need to get supplies from the human city of Civia.”

  “Those three really stirred up all of Dena,” Gus said.

  “Ain’t no one believe me when I tell them we were saved from cultists by them.” Another merchant sighed.

  “Well, we know the truth. Now quit yer bitchin’ and get up on your carts!” Su said.

  They grumbled and turned around, heading back along the supply train.

  Chapter: Under the Cover of Cannons

  General Axion patted the cannonball in the middle of the command center with a proud look on his face.

  “So, this...smoke cannonball is how we’re going to hit the Drafeng?” Mora asked.

  General Kolvar—an elf, leader of the Third Army—and Nagithar—the dwarven general of the Seventh Army—both frowned, waiting for Axion to explain.

  “With this, we will be able to obscure the eyes of the Drafeng. They can protect themselves while we use the time to rush forward. We use the cover to use those mobile fortress enchantments that we have been holding on to. We plant the fortresses. They grow up; then we put cannons into the fortresses, using them as a base of fire for us to attack the Drafeng and soften them up. Then we drive forward into their defenses, cut them down. If they pull back, we don’t give chase—we create another fortress there, push cannons up to it. Then we continue, pushing forward and erecting fortresses as we advance, using one or two to cover the others. This will secure our rear line and allow us to have defenses moving forward.”

  “It seems resource and time intensive,” Nagithar said.

  “It is, but we are getting the Sixth, Ninth, and the remainder of the Army of Light soon and we will have the full support of the island’s merchant navy now that Radal and Selenus are relying on their own internal supply means.”

  “We can fight them on the ground, but we need the numbers. Our army is a light army used to fighting along the shores, clearing ships—not face-to-face engagements like the mainland armies. The cannon fire will weaken and shock them,” Mora said. “A bit crazy, but it could work.”

  “You know this battlefield better than I do. Before we send out people, I say that we have earth mages firm up the ground. We roll out the cannon batteries on these roads. Then, if our people are attacked while making the fortresses, with the cannons we’ve pushed up we can strike them,” Kolvar said.

  “That will make it faster to get the cannons into the fortresses as well,” Nagithar agreed.

  “We can use the sailors and navy to man the fortresses. They’re good with cannons, defenses, and pike—that way it gives us greater strength pushing forward,” Axion said.

  “All right. Well, sounds like we have come to an agreement,” Nagithar said. “When do we carry out this insane plan of yours?”

  “Tomorrow midday. Not many armies attack in the middle of the day, so they should be thrown off. I’ll take any kind of confusion that we can possibly get.”

  “Tomorrow at midday it is then,” Kolvar said.

  The meeting ended and people were briefed; orders were passed down and the armies were reorganized. Engineers and those able to create enchantments were shifted to the supply camp, producing cannonballs with enchantments like the one Axion had patted.

  ***

  “You sure that this is going to work?” Mora asked Axion.

  “I’m pretty sure. If not, then we can pull back,” Axion said.

  First and Second Army were down behind the gates that had been created in the defensive wall. Sailors from the fleet were manning the guns on the wall with support from the Seventh. The Third Army was in the rear, ready to support as needed.

  A whistle sounded out. The midday sun, cold and impartial on Cheon’s shores, was greeted by rolling cannon fire.

  Axion looked through an archer’s slit in the wall. The cannonballs landed and sent up a spray of rock, snow, and smoke that created a gray cloud in front of the defensive crystal wall.

  The firing went on for three minutes. Axion and Mora separated and went to command their own armies.

  Another whistle sounded out and the gates were pushed open.

  Shield bearers went out first. They were followed by mages, who solidified the ground and created roads that the cannons could move on and fire from if they needed to. The cannons were loaded but they didn’t have a firing string and had a stopper over their fire ports.

  The First and Second Army crept forward out to the wall. They moved between the roads, clearing the line of sight for the cannons.

  With the cover from the smoke cannonballs, they couldn’t see the enemy. There was only a wall of cloud in front of them. It was nerve-racking; they knew that the enemy was just over the hill, that they would be able to see them if a stiff breeze came and cleared the cloud out of the way.

  At any moment, they could be found out.

  They advanced quickly and in order, speaking to their training that they didn’t falter; they didn’t slow.

  It passed slowly as they reached the location for the new castles.

  Axion moved to where the right flank castle would be. Mora was on the left. Axion looked at th
e enchanted plate.

  The guards hauled it out from the cart that they were towing it in and laid it down on the ground. Mages and engineers went to work; there were several pieces to the large formation that needed to be connected. In just a few minutes, they had the formation connected and readied.

  Axion organized his troops, getting them in place, ready to charge once they had the towers up.

  He looked over as the formation activated. The wind picked up and he nervously looked at the cloud wall that separated them from the enemy. More cannons to the rear seemed to see the issue and increased their rate of fire. The cloud density increased rapidly, keeping them hidden from view.

  The army started to dig in. Half of them watched the clouds; the other half used their magic, or their own shovels and picks, to clear through the snow and stone.

  The enchantment lines and runes started to glow with more and more power. The ground around it rippled out, flattening and compressing before the stone from the ground started to grow upward like vines.

  Walls grew unevenly before meeting up at crucial points, where they grew sideways instead of directly upward.

  Floors were created, cannon ports formed, archery platforms and mages’ casting balconies generated. The fortress took ten minutes for the skeleton to be outlined. After ten more tense minutes, the fortress was complete.

  Cannon crews, archers, and mages who were meant for the fortress were rushed inside. Mages used spells to reduce the weight of the cannons and floated them up to their positions. People called back for supplies—arrows, powder, and cannonballs—runners headed out from the main fortress and rushed forward to fill the new fortress’s magazines.

  In just a few minutes, the fortress was manned. In a few more minutes, they were getting a steady stream of supplies from the rear.

  Axion looked to his troops. They had been able to make a rudimentary trench structure in the ground. It gave them something to focus on other than the clouds of smoke in front of them and the enemy that could come through it at any moment.

  We need to act soon. Standing and waiting here, not knowing whether our cover will hold wears on their minds. Giving them the order to attack will allow them to focus and bleed off that energy.

  Axion silently hurried those who were in the fortresses and the people who were on the supply train. The roads for the cannons were plain but it increased the pace that supplies could be moved up.

  After another twenty excruciating minutes, the supplies were in place.

  “Send up the call. Ready the army. Have the rear reduce their cannon fire and switch rounds. As soon as that cloud cover clears, I want the secondary fortresses firing right into the Drafeng camp!”

  Whistles called out to one another and the signal officers used different flags to communicate between one another.

  The bombardment ended and everyone tensed up. With the wind of the sea, the smoke started to clear in a few minutes.

  The final outline of the Drafeng camp appeared and the cannons from the new fortresses opened up. Their cannonballs smashed through the crystal walls, exploding and killing Drafeng who had been watching the smoke cannons falling.

  Cannonballs landed in the heart of the Drafeng camp. Here the chaotic beasts were recovering and absorbing the mana to turn it into chaotic power. They were all clumped together and not expecting the attacks. Mages worked with one another to bring down large-scale destruction spells upon the camp.

  Chaos now filled the camp. The chaotic beasts were surprised; the Drafeng didn’t know what to do and their command and control was being torn apart with relentless attacks.

  “Have the mages add in their attacks as well,” Axion said. He wanted to make use of the chaos as much as possible. The more he killed here, the easier the advance would be.

  Meteor Impact seemed to be the go-to spell today.

  Meteors and cannonballs smashed into the Drafeng camp as though Armageddon had fallen upon them. The enemy were penned in by their camp. Many were now trying to flee. Hundreds, possibly thousands, had died.

  Axion saw a change in the chaotic beasts as they started to run through the breaches in their forward walls in an attempt to get closer to the army’s front line.

  “Have the army on alert. Defend against the chaotic beasts that are coming.”

  Archers from the towers used their bows to pour down steel rain on the chaotic beasts. The archers within the army’s trenches added in their bows. The melee forces of the army stepped out of their trenches and moved backward, using it as an obstacle; the ground behind them had been flattened out except for the archer and mage trenches.

  Chaotic beasts tore through what was remaining of the cloud cover. Cut down in droves by the arrows, they were laid out with the spells.

  They stumbled across the trench lines to be greeted with spears and shields of the First and Second Army. There was no mercy for them and the limited numbers of chaotic beasts that made it that far were able to do little.

  Drafeng and chaotic beasts worked in groups, sending out their chaotic beams at the fortresses.

  The left flank fortress was hit with such strength that a wall was blown apart and a cannon hurled away. Fortress walls were melted. The chaotic power reached through the openings—cannon firing ports and the archer slits. If anyone was unlucky enough to be on the other side, their fate was already sealed.

  The attacks continued to come in again and again, the two forces slugging it out.

  The Drafeng army couldn’t take the punishment that was coming down on them. Their army was falling apart and any group that seemed to be becoming cohesive, the cannon teams or the mages would target them to keep them a scattered rabble.

  A call went up and the Drafeng who had made it out of the camp scattered to the east and west, heading northward.

  “First and Second, up and at ’em! Advance!” Axion called out. Whistles were sounded and the armies marched forward, advancing onto the camp.

  He turned to the messengers behind him. “I want cannons and personnel brought up. Have the Third Army push up with supplies. They will remain here at this point, ready to support as needed! We have them on the run—we need to push the advantage!”

  ***

  Khurok looked at the reports that Oru had given to him and that had come from the front lines.

  “Send out three more groups of reinforcements. We need to stop the armies to our south from advancing. Have Enya create camps dotted across the south. That way, if they are pushed out of one, then they have a place to retreat to. I want a Drafeng force at each camp to act as long-range support. Send out a company strength for each of the camps. We cannot let them reach the north. If they are able to find out what we are working on, then they could shift their forces from other regions to assist and push us into the sea before the harvesters are completed.”

  “Leader.” Oru tucked his head in understanding. He waited as Khurok seemed to be thinking.

  “Increase the pressure in the north of the mainland and in the east. We need to distract them and draw their attention away.”

  “I will send your orders.” Oru turned and left.

  Khurok looked out of his conversion tower, over to the crystalline structures that were being created on the plains. Conversion towers dotted them and the crystal was no longer clear. Inside it, chaotic power was being drawn in and stored, a power source.

  “With the harvesters, we can move freely across Dena, striking as we want, out of their reach. Converting the power of this world into our own. We just need time to do so. One week...one week and the first will be able to ascend.”

  Chapter: Hidden Might

  Unseen by many, Oru passed through one of the doorways that was in the north of Cheon, then reappeared in the Northern Basin of the Stoha Mountains and then again in Cresmond Peak. His passing was unremarkable but the changes that came with the orders he passed on had a powerful effect.

  ***

  Cecilia looked at Cresmond Peak. It had once been a rugg
ed and hilly area that emerged from the forest. But in the last day, it had turned into one of the bloodiest battlefields since the Drafeng had opened their doorways. The Drafeng had opened doorways among the uninhabited peaks. They had created their growing crystal fortresses around the main passes into the peaks. If they wanted to take it, then the forces of Dena needed to break through these fortresses.

  “It has been confirmed by the aerial scouts. There are at least five conversion towers among the peaks,” Allynna said to her mother. They were inside the unadorned command tent that was open to look at the peaks. Spells suddenly rained down on one of the passes.

  “Looks like they’re trying to make another break for it,” Cecilia muttered.

  “They charge down, and we tear them apart with magic.” Allynna sighed and shook her head.

  “They have to have queens up there supplying them with chaotic beasts. Although we can kill them as they’re coming down, we have to dedicate our force here to keeping them pinned in. Our attacks don’t just kill the enemy; they destroy the terrain, making it harder to assault the peak.”

  Horns called out as the armies prepared. A sea of chaotic beasts were descending the mountain.

  “That is a lot more than normal,” Allynna said.

  “Looks like they are going all out. Have the reserve ready—we might need them!”

  The archers, gunners, and mages did what they could. The siege weapons continued to fire again and again, coating the hill in attacks that killed the chaotic beasts, even the Drafeng, in the hundreds.

  Sending down the Drafeng—isn’t that reckless of them to do so? If they lose too many, then they will lose their command and control. What is going on? Cecilia felt that something was wrong. But she didn’t know what it was. As much as they had tried to learn about the Drafeng, they were a group from another planet. They had been able to capture a few of them for a limited time but they were unable to get much information on how they thought and the motivation for their actions. If they knew that the fight was for the greater good then they would sacrifice themselves, as shown by the Drafeng who had burned out their bodies in order to create the attack that had shattered Skalafell’s shield and the wall.